/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE: Exploring Modern Day East African Identity

Self-analysis is a popular theme with Kenyan artists these days, reflecting a widespread desire to move on from the days of colonialism and one-party oppression and to explore the modern day Kenyan identity, in all its complexities.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: Caribbean Music Getting Louder in U.S. Deep South

Shaggy and soca music were on the menu of a recent concert in the U.S. Deep South, where more than 5,000 West Indian immigrants braved the rain for a taste of home.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CINEMA-VIETNAM: Local Film Gets Overseas Break

News that 'Doi Cat' (Sand Life) will soon be aired on Chinese television has given Vietnamese film director Thanh Van a thrill and the local film industry a much-needed boost.

/ART WEEKLY/FILM-CHILE: Director of Pinochet Film Takes on Opus Dei

After her acclaimed, thought-provoking documentary ''I Love Pinochet'', Chilean filmmaker Marcela Said is getting ready to tackle another touchy issue: filming the followers of Opus Dei who are travelling en masse to Rome for the Oct 6. canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CINEMA-VIETNAM: Local Film Gets Overseas Break

News that 'Doi Cat' (Sand Life) will soon be aired on Chinese television has given Vietnamese film director Thanh Van a thrill and the local film industry a much-needed boost.

/ART WEEKLY/FILM-CHILE: Director of Pinochet Film Takes on Opus Dei

After her acclaimed, thought-provoking documentary "I Love Pinochet", Chilean filmmaker Marcela Said is getting ready to tackle another touchy issue: filming the followers of Opus Dei who are travelling en masse to Rome for the Oct 6. canonisation of Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: Caribbean Music Getting Louder in U.S. Deep South

Shaggy and soca music were on the menu of a recent concert in the U.S. Deep South, where more than 5,000 West Indian immigrants braved the rain for a taste of home.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE: Exploring Modern Day East African Identity

Self-analysis is a popular theme with Kenyan artists these days, reflecting a widespread desire to move on from the days of colonialism and one-party oppression and to explore the modern day Kenyan identity, in all its complexities.

/ARTS WEEKLY/TELEVISION-ARGENTINA: A Candidate Is Born

Argentine television has long served as a springboard for politicians who have known how to take advantage of the spotlight and the cameras, but now the small screen is being used to turn regular citizens into political candidates.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-PERU: Poetry, Afro-Peruvian Folklore Rediscovered

"Lamento negro" (Black Lament), a collection of poems set to music and sung by Peru's Susana Baca in an all-but-forgotten album, rose to international fame in a matter of months, largely because it won the Latin Grammy award for best folk music album.

ARTS WEEKLY/KENYA: One Thousand Years of Swahili Culture

Taarab singer Juma Bhalo sang until dawn in Lamu 's ancient town square - just one of dozens of events packed into its busy three-day cultural festival to celebrate one thousand years of Swahili culture.

/ARTS WEEKLY/INDIA: Book Gives Elegy for Kashmir’s Paradise Lost

Sudha Koul's book 'The Tiger Ladies' is more than a simple 'memoir of Kashmir' as she calls it in the subtitle -- it is the literary encapsulation of the tragedy of a hauntingly beautiful territory high in the Himalayas, whose Muslim and Hindu inhabitants have been torn asunder by the greed of others.

/ARTS WEEKLY/BOOKS: Activists are Canada’s Driving Political Force

The brightest and most politically engaged people in a northern developed nation like Canada are citizen activists, argues Canadian journalist Tim Falconer in his new book.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE: Singapore Reaches for the Stars with New Arts Centre

Opera star Jessye Norman, jazz genius Wynton Marsalis, the acclaimed London Philharmonic Orchestra -- these are just a few of the big names coming to town in October to help Singaporeans celebrate the opening of a controversial but magnificently designed arts centre.

/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Fans say Jamaica Reggae Star Peter Tosh Ignored

Sep. 11 will go down as one of the most tragic days in history after last year's attack on New York and Washington. For the family and fans of reggae singer Peter Tosh, it also marks a time of mourning because on that date 15 years ago gunmen murdered Tosh at his home in Jamaica's capital.

/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-ITALY: Mysteries of the Aldo Moro Case

A film now in production places partial blame on the intelligence services of Italy and the United States for the 1978 assassination of Italian political leader Aldo Moro by the ultra-leftist Red Brigades.

THEATRE-COSTA RICA: Erotic Comedies Pilloried as Mere Cash Cows

The predominance in Costa Rican theatres of erotic comedies, adapted to the daily lives and language of local society, has sparked debate -- and growing unease -- in the world of "conventional" playwrights and theatre critics.

/ARTS WEEKLY/THEATRE-AFRICA: Artists Weigh the Success of World Summit

Musicians, performing artists and other entertainers from the Southern Africa region are weighing the success of this month's World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, and how much attention their talents received.

/ARTS WEEKLY/CULTURE-COLOMBIA: Traditions Emerge Among the Uprooted

Colombians displaced from their homes by the ongoing civil war are dispersed throughout the country, taking their music, customs and traditions with them as they create new lives and neighbourhoods, new languages and modes of expression.

CORRECTED REPEAT /ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-URUGUAY: Grammy Nominee Caught between Continents

Uruguay's singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, the only artist from this small country -- small by South American standards -- to be nominated for a Latin Grammy musical award this year, is "home" for a concert tour, reinforcing his ties to his origins, he says.

/ARTS WEEKLY/LITERATURE-VENEZUELA: A Revival of the Serial Story

A major Venezuelan newspaper has begun publishing regular instalments of a novel by Isaac Chocrón, breathing new life into the old genre of serial stories published by newspapers or magazines, but also revealing the crisis affecting the nation's publishing industry.